Memories of Stars
by Pyro-Link
Summary: In order to get Shadow to be more outgoing, Sonic and co. have dragged him out to go star gazing with them. The attempt fails, though, as Shadow acts as cold as always. However, Amy isn't just going to leave him be and is determined to make him smile.ShxA


Memories of Stars

"What's that one, Tails?"

"That?That's the Big Dipper."

"And that one; which one is that?" Amy pointed with a finger toward another constellation glinting in the sky. Her friend, Miles "Tails" Prower, place a gloved hand to his chin.

"Hmm...I'm actually not sure," Amy gave him a questioning look. Tails raised a hand in his defense. "Hey, I've only just begun studying astrology...I'm a _mechanic_, remember?" The pink hedgehog situated herself more comfortably in the cool grass that they laid in at the present moment. She sighed.

"Well, if you ask me, I'd say it looks like a chili-dog..."

Tails sat up, leaning on his elbows to get a better look at his best friend, mostly in part to see if he had finally lost it. Sonic sat up and waved a hand after seeing his face, easing his mock worries.

"Don't worry, I'm just _kidding_. Grow a sense of humor, will ya'?" the fox boy smiled widely, not ready to give up yet.

"_Right_. I'm supposed to grow a sense of humor when you think a bunch of stars look like a _chili dog_," he kidded. The two both chuckled, laying back down in the grass with the rest of their friends.

Amy was there, of course, situated favorably next to Sonic with Tails on the other side, as well as Rouge the Bat and Knuckles the Echidna. The later two being not far from the others on their backs in the grass as well. The last member of the group was further from the other five.

Though, he liked it that way.

His pure white hands were placed behind his spiked head and his blood red eyes gazed up at the sky. Shadow, although he was now better friends with the rest of the group, had not abandoned his solitary nature. And, thus, was content just hearing the small bits of converstation he heard through the long grass as he looked at the stars.

He, unlike Tails, knew many of the constellations that resided in the heavens, and, was as such, picking them out mentally, one by one. He came across one in particular and stopped, his gloved hand delicately tracing it.

_'Shadow...'_

He slowly closed his eyes, allowing the memory to play back. It was a good one, after all.

_'Do you remember which one that was?' _

In his mind, Maria stood next to him on the ARK, looking at a cluster of stars. In the memory, his past self replied.

_'That's Winter's Belt.'_

This appeared to please Maria, as she smiled happily, _'Winter's Belt...' _she tried out.

The smile widened as she turned to Shadow. _'Such a beautiful name to go with an equally beautiful constellation. Don't you think so, Shadow?'_

"Shadow?"

The ultimate life form opened his eyes as Maria faded away and reality set in. He got up to lean on his elbows and his counterpart doing the same.

"Come on Shads," he called. 'Shads' said nothing, but he was obviously annoyed at the nickname the blue hedgehog persisted in calling him at any given chance. "It doesn't do much good to go somewhere as a group if you're just going to be alone like that."

The ebony hedgehog looked back at him and called back, "Well, somepeople happen to like being alone."

The energetic hedgehog, obviously not satisfied with this answer, tried again, "Well, _some_ people don't like to be pushed away by their friends," Shadow narrowed his eyes. There he went. Going on the friend thing for what seemed like the umpteenth time. Wasn't there such a thing as having some space?

He was about to counter when Tails intercepted, seeing that the argument clearly wasn't going anywhere. Like usual.

"Sonic, let's just leave him alone," he told his friend. A frown was apparent on his fox's face. "Besides, if he didn't listen to your arguments the last twelve times, what makes you think that he'll listen this time? It's just how he is," Shadow, hearing this relaxed back down, sure that he would have a chance to just relax. He closed his eyes once more, this time purely to just rest.

However, his attempt was soon halted by that of the sound of shuffling in the grass only a few feet away from him. He peeked an eye open to see the whole group heading toward him led by Amy. He sat up, looking at them with confusion beneath his neutral eyes. Amy winked at him and sat down.

Well, fine," she told him. "We'll just move to you!" Amy, Tails, and Sonic sat down beside him. The last having his trademark cocky grin; albeit. Rouge sat down as well, having managed to drag Knuckles, (who had been sleeping rather peacefully), to sit down with them.

Shadow stared at all of them for a moment. A mix of confusion and annoyance, as well just the tiniest bit of appreciation. Although he would sooner pick daisies for the mere fun of it before he would admit that.

Finally, though, he fell back on the soft grass, shutting his eyes once more in an attempt to ignore them.

"Do what you want," he merely told them.

A while later, the group was once again talking and laughing freely in the night air. Shadow, now, had succumbed to sleep and was blissfully unaware of their constant chatter.

Their conversations, as like many, had soon come full circle, drifting back to the stars above them. Amy was again questioning Tails.

"Well, if you don't know that one," she began for what must have been the fourth time. "Then you _must_ know that – "

"_Amy_," the fox boy breathed, exasperated. "If I didn't know the past ones, I probably don't know this one," Amy pouted as Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge laughed lightly at the two. The pink hedgehog looked back at the constellation, "But, they're so pretty, it would be so annoying not to know the name of them..."

Rouge then piped up, "Maybe, we could just name them," she suggested. "We could name them after ourselves," Amy smiled, already liking the idea. Knuckles shot a tired look at the bat beside him.

"You can't name constellations," he muttered. "It's stupid." Rouge whipped her head toward him.

"You can!" she yelled at him. "It's _a lot _better than just calling them 'those stars'! Do you have a better idea, _Knucklehead_?" she chided, using her pet name for him.

"So, wouldn't it be _a whole lot_ better to call me by my actual name, _bat girl_?"

"I'll call you Knucklehead until you stop being one!" she crossed her arms, nose pointed up.

Knuckles sighed. He fell down on his back, stretching out to rest. He knew he couldn't win against Rouge at this point. "Okay, fine, do whatever you want, just be quiet," he told her lazily. Rouge huffed at him. Amy, who had been ignoring the entire argument, had been trying to think of a name for the stars, looked at the group excited. "I know!"

The three remaining looked at her, waiting for her to go on. "How about..." she paused, hoping for a dramatic before exclaiming:

"– what are you doing?"

Feeling miffed at being cut off, Amy turned to Shadow, glaring. The ebony hedgehog had propped himself on his elbows once more, eyes half-lidded. The annoyance in his red eyes were clear, though. Sonic scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry about that, Shads. Did we wake you up?" Shadow glared at his counterpart.

"No, _faker_," he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I've been awake this entire time; I've just been pretending to be asleep." Said blue hedgehog mocked a hurt look, going so far as to wipe an imaginary tear away.

"Man, you cut me deep there." Rouge and Amy rolled their eyes. Shadow ignored his rival's antics and soon turned to Amy.

"What?" she asked, feeling more than intimidated by his piercing eyes. He raised a mildly amused look.

"Don't you think it's a bit – self-centered to _name_ a constellation after yourself?" Shadow asked in his own extremely blunt way. Amy looked at him for a moment blankly before narrowing her green eyes, mirroring Rouge beside her. But, before she got a chance to yell at him, there was a small chuckle heard near Rouge.

It was soon replaced by a few curses, mumbled; albeit. All of this courtesy of Rouge's boot.

The pink hedgehog, moving along after this, turned to Shadow once more while Rouge's look dared the two other men to laugh as well.

"It is _not_ self-centered!" she yelled. "It's creative – cute_._ _And_, it's a _whole_ lot better than calling them a bunch of stars!"

"The term is 'constellation'."

Amy pulled on her pink quills in exasperation. "I liked you better when you were asleep!"

Shadow was taken aback slightly by this, blinking quickly; once, twice. But, recovering quickly, he took only a small note of it before continuing the verbal spar, "I doubt _anyone_ could sleep near you..."

Tails could have sworn he saw fire in Amy's eyes as she began to pull out her Piko Piko Hammer, turned to the ebony hedgehog. Sonic was soon restraining the infuriated girl from pummeling his rival. Shadow returned to his nonchalant attitude, ignoring her death threats.

"So, Shadow, do you know many constellations?" Tails asked him, trying to ignore the pink hedgehog as well.

"Yes."

Knuckles caught Tails' drift quickly and pointed to the group of stars that Amy and been fawning over earlier. The sooner they moved off the topic of naming the stars, the less likely he would get kicked again.

"So, you wouldn't happen to know what that one's called?" he asked. By now, Sonic had succeeded in calming down Amy and now both looked at Shadow as he looked to where the echidna was pointing to.

He recognized it immediately; eyes dimming somewhat.

"Winter's Belt," he replied, his tone and eyes softening greatly. Amy took no notice as she looked up at the sky.

"I like it!" she stated, laughing. "It's much better than anything I could have come up with anyways," she agreed. Rouge nodded as well, followed by Sonic and Tails. Amy continued on, more to herself than anyone else at this point.

"Hmm...a beautiful name to go with an equally pretty constellation!" Shadow's eyes widened a fraction. _Her words..._

"Don't you think so, Shadow?" she asked him, hoping to get on better terms again. Or, at least, as good as they had been before. She really needed to learn to control her temper.

"Maria..." he whispered nearly inaudibly. Lowering his eyes regretfully, he turned around to lie on his side as the others gazed at the no longer nameless constellation. Amy, though, seeing that Shadow hadn't answered her question, turned to him once more.

"Shadow?" the pink hedgehog tried again. She heard a small sigh.

"What?" his voice must have sounded irritated, as Sonic spoke next.

"Hey, anything wrong?" he asked, for once leaving out the nickname.

"Just..." he paused, contemplating his words. The last thing he wanted was to sound weak. "...memories."

Sonic understood and kept quiet, knowing that some of the most unlikely of things were known to trigger memories of the ARK, and Shadow's past life. But, most importantly was Maria. Tails and Rouge understood this as well, feeling now uneasy as silence fell over the normally boisterous group. Sonic now poked his shoelace, not knowing now what to do. The only one not affected, though, was Amy. Confused, she turned to her friends to get some clue as to what Shadow meant. No response.

"Shadow..." she began, more softly than before. Hearing her break the silence, Sonic shot Amy a look, trying to get through to her to just stop right there. Going as far as to even mouth 'no', he was surprised to see her take no heed to any of the warnings, continuing on, "What is..." Shadow turned. Did the girl not even comprehend the situation? She was more of a fool than he had thought...

"...that constellation?"

A quiet wind blew by.

Shadow deadpanned, blinking; he wasn't easily surprised. He looked to where she was pointing to.

"The Little Dipper..."

"Ah! How cute!" I like that one!" Amy beamed. The rest of the group except for Shadow stared at the pink hedgehog, none of which being able to tell if she was doing this on purpose or not. Needless to say, all were having differing thoughts on her mental health.

"And what about that one?"

"That's the Big Dipper."

"Oh! _That_ one is really pretty!"

"That's...an airplane..."

Shadow looked down from the stars, watching as the pink hedgehog laughed shyly, her face reddening. Sonic and Tails were laughing as well, along with Rouge and Knuckles.

He allowed a small smile on his lips, nothing more. Nothing else was really needed. He looked at Amy, vainly trying to explain her foolishness to no avail. _She could be borderline insane_, he thought. _But, I have an idea what's really going on._..

Almost silently, he began to laugh with everyone else.

_Thank you._


End file.
